Some of the best-paying fields of study—like science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)—are also the stingiest when it comes to grading in college. If you get too discouraged by B's versus A's, you might miss out on a profitable profession.

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Interestingly, women seem to be more averse to bad grades than men are, according to a couple of studies noted by the Washington Post:

Goldin looked at how grades awarded in an introductory economics class affected the chance that a student would ultimately major in the subject. She found that the likelihood a woman would major in economics dropped steadily as her grade fell: Women who received a B in Econ 101, for example, were about half as likely as women who received A's to stick with the discipline. The same discouragement gradient didn't exist for men. Of Econ 101 students, men who received A's were about equally as likely as men who received B's to concentrate in the dismal science.

Being sensitive to low grades, however, could affect an individual of any gender. The takeaway for everyone is to focus less on your grades and more on what you really want to do with your life. Got a B-? Just imagine your professor has used the staircase method of grading papers pictured above, and keep on studying.